Rolled-oats process.



No. 677,789. Patented luly 2, 190i.. J. n. &`H. n. NAGEL.

BOLLED OATS PRCESS.

(Application led Se'pt. 13, 1800.)

@No Model.)

v Q [NVE/WOR.; Mw @www ams wzrsns zo, uom-Lalla. wAsmuaroN. n, c.

UNITED STATES YaTnNT l NE@ JOHN D. NAGEL AND HENRY R. NAGEL, OFBUSHNELL, ILLINOIS.

ROLLED-OATS PROCESS.

SPECIFOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 677,789, dated July 2,1901.

Application tiled September 13, 1.900. Serial l\To. 29,936. (liospecimens.)

T0 all 1071.077?, it 17m/.y concern' Be it known that we, JOHN D. NAGELand HENRY R. NAGEL, of Bushnell, McDonough county, Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Rolled-OatsProcesses;and We hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and exactdescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing,which forms part of this specification.

This invention is an improved process of treating oats for food; and theobject of the invention is to produce rolled oats or oatflakes in whichthe natural flavor of the oatgrains and all the nutriment thereof Willbe preserved and retained.

Heretofore in making rolled oats the grain has 'been heated orkiln-dried to enable the hulls to be detached from the kernels, and insome instances the grain has been steamed before rolling. These stepsare most detrimental and largely reduce the nutritive value of theproduct as a food, because the heating destroys or extracts much of thenutrition from the grain, kills its life, and destroys the naturalflavor of the grain. The heat also depreciates the keeping qualities ofthe product and produces favorable conditions therein for the breedingof Wormsand insects. In our process the objectionable step of heating orsteaming the grain is entirely avoided. The hulls are detached from thekernels in a natural condition and the kernels separated and purifiedfrom all fiber and foreign substances, and ultimately compressed intothin flakes Which retain all the natural flavor and nutriment of thegrain and are more readily digested than the old partly-cooked products,

and, further, our product may be kept much longer than the ordinaryrolled oats Without becoming musty orbreeding Worms or Weevil, and theflakes are much larger than those hitherto produced by the oldprocesses.

The product of our process is superior to anything heretofore produced,and we attribute its superiority to the fact that We entirely avoid thedisadvantageous and deleterions effect produced on the grain by steamingor heating the same, as has been heretofore customary, and, further, bythe fact that in our process the oats are taken in their natural state,thoroughly cleaned, clipped, and

graded uniformly, then hulled, then the hulls are removed from thegroats, after which the groats are polished,and finally thethoroughlypurified kernels are flaked by passing them between suitablerolls. Oare is taken during our entire process to avoid any heating ofthe grain and to keep it always in its natural cool condition, so thatthe product Will retain all the natural flavor and nutriment ot' thegrain and be entirely free from any particles of dust, hulls, or grit.

Our invention therefore consists in the novel process of treating theoats to produce theimproved product, as hereinafter described andclaimed, and the accompanying drawing illustrates diagrammatically anapparatus em ployed in carrying out our process. A

Referring to the drawing, A represents a bin containing marketable oatsin their natural condition. These oats are conducted from the binthrough a spout CL/ into a sepa- -rator B, which is constructed toseparate the sound grains from light grains and impurities and foreignsubstances, which are conducted ot'f through the spout 1)',While thedust and lightimpurities may be aspirated through the spout b. The cleangrain is conducted from the separator B through spout b2 to the clipperC,Which is constructed to clip or scour ott the long beards of the grainand make them smooth and polished, so that they can be thereafterreadily separated on sieve-machines, and this clipper O is alsoconstructed to separate any double oat-kernels, Which is necessary tothe perfect carrying out of the process. These double kernels usuallyconsist of a small and a large kernel grown in one hull or coating, andit is necessary that these be dividedbefore sending same to the huller.These small kernels are principally responsible for the hulls and chaffWhich are so generally found in the common hulled oats upon the market.From the clipper C the polished grains, with the clippings andscourings, pass through the pipe c into the grading-separator D, whichis constructed to thoroughly grade the oats, preferably by means ofsheet-metal sieves having perforations which Will allow all except thedesired and bestoats to pass through. The beards, hulls, and otherlightimpurities may be aspirated from the grading-separator D throughthe pipe d,while the small grains pass on through a pipe d2 into asecond gradingseparator E, which is constructed like separator D exceptthat the perforations in its sieves are made slightly smaller, so thatthey will separate the smaller or second grade of oats from the tailingsor screenings. The dust and like impurities may be aspirated fromseparator E through pipe e, While the heavy impurities and refuse can bedischarged through the pipe e'.

The oats separated in separator D may be called No. l oats, which arelarger than the oats separated in separator E, which latter may becalled No. 2 oats, and we preferably treat these tivo grades alike, butseparately.

As shown, the No.1 oats are conducted from the separator D by pipe d' toa huller F, preferably a centrifugal machine, by which the hulls areloosened from the kernels. The greats, hulls, and kernels are dischargedfrom huller F through pipe f into the bolting or scalping reel G, whichis preferably clothed with Wire-cloth of suitable mesh,to extract thefine dust and particles from the greats, and this dust is drawn olfthrough the pipe K, While the greats and hulls are discharged through apipe g into a separator H, which is of such construction that it willfirst separate the hulls from the greats, preferably by aspiration,through spout g in any suitable manner, and then separate the hulledkernels from the unhulled ones. It is enabled to do this by means ofsuitable screens Whose perforations Will only permit the passage ot' thehulled oats and because the oats Were graded to a uniformed size beforethey passed to the hullerv and the groats (orhulled oats) are muchshorter than the unhulled kernels or oats. The unhulled oats arereturned from the separator H to the huller F by means of the pipes h'and cZ,While the separated No. 1 kernels are discharged through pipe hinto a scourer I, which thoroughly polishes the kernels and removes alldust, hair, fiber, dre., Which might possibly adhere thereto, this dust,&c., being aspirated from the scourer through the pipe z'. The nowthoroughly-cleaned and uniformly-sized kernels are conducted from thescourerl through pipe t" between the rolls J J', by which they arefiattened into iiakes or Waters. This completes the process, and theproduct delivered from the rolls J J is ready for the market.

It Will be observed that the grain is treated throughout in its naturalcondition, is not subjected to any steaming or heating, is thoroughlycleansed of all impurities, the kernels are thoroughly separated fromthe hulls and are graded to uniform size before laking, and the productcontains all the nutriment and' liavor of the natural grain, While beingentirely free from husks or other impurities.

The No. 2 oats are treated exactly in the same manner as the No. l oats,but are carried from separator E through pipe e2 to a huller F2, thencethrough pipe f2 to scalpingreel G2, thence through the pipe g2 togreatsseparator H2, thence through pipe h2 to brush scourer I2, andthencethrough pipe 'i3 to ilaking-rollsJ2 and J 3. The dust-outlet fromthe scalper G2 is connected to a pipe K. The hulls from separator H2 areaspirated off through pipe h2, and the dust from scourer 12 is aspiratedthrough pipe t2. Any unhulled oats passing into separator H2 arereturned through pipes g3 and e2to huller F2. The process and apparatusfor treating the No. 2 oats, it will be observed, are exactly similar tothose of treating the No. l oats, only the adjustment of the huller F2would be slightly closer and the screen of the separator H2 slightlyfiner for the No. 2 oats than for the No. l oats because of thedifference in the size of the kernels to be treated.

Having thus described our invention, what we therefore claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent thereon, is-

1. As an improved article of manufacture the herein-described productfrom oats in their natural condition consisting of the uncooked andunheated, hulled, natural oatkernels pressed into Hakes.

2. As an improved article of manufacture the herein-described productfrom oats consisting of the uncooked and unheated, hulled kernels ofoats in their natural condition graded to uniform size, cleaned andpressed into flakes. y

3. The herein-described process of manufacturing rolled oats, consistingin cleaning land clipping the oats and subsequently separating the oatsfrom the cha caused by the clipping of the grain, grading the clippedoats to obtain uniform length thereof, hullin g such gradedoats,cleaning and separating the kernels from the hulls, and iinally iiakingthe kernels for the purpose and substantially as described.

4. The herein-described process of treating oats in a natural uncookedand unheated condition consisting in cleaning, clipping and separatingthe oats, grading them according to size to obtain uniform lengths ofkernels, then separately treating each grade of oats in ahulling-machine to detach the hulls from the kernels, then cleaning andseparating the hulls from the kernels andl separating any unhulledkernels from the hulled ones, cleaning the separated kernels, and inallyi'laking them, for the purpose and substantially as described.

In testimony that We claim the foregoing as our own We affix oursignatures in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN D. NAGEL. H. R. NAGEL.

In presence of- JoHN N. Zook', CHARLES W. HAGAMAN.

ros

IIO

